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Samurai

Whitney Houston’s line in The Bodyguard – “two Samurai” – gave two former secret service agents the image of protective warriors. Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai brought Helen deWitt’s saga to life, and one of my favorite reads is James Clavell’s Shogun.

Aside from the glamour and the drama, the samurai have a real place in Japanese history, and Caroline Leavitt neatly identifies their background, codes, and weapons in her factual children’s book Samurai. The educational book offers accurate information, illustrations, and photographs – as well as an index and websites for further exploration – a good way to discover who the real warriors were.